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Friday, December 20, 2013

In recent days, the rumors have been flying around that former George W. Bush and Mitt Romney senior adviser (as well as being a primary drafter of the godawful "Contract with America") Ed Gillespie might run for U.S. Senate in 2014 against Mark Warner. Yes, it's laughable, I know. Still, Gillespie seems to be seriously considering it. The problem is, if he does run, people will start looking carefully at his record, such as his lobbying for key elements of what would later become known as "Obamcare."
For instance, starting at 4:20 of this video (see transcript of key parts below), Ed Gillespie has some, er, interesting things to say about health care in America. For instance, that he supports private sector health care sold through health care exchanges. Sort of like...yeah, "Obamacare." Of course, this is the same guy who was lobbying for the individual mandate two years before anyone even heard of Obamacare ("In 2007, the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform hired Quinn Gillespie to lobby for its agenda, which included an employer mandate and an individual mandate...[Gillespie] seems stuck admitting he was for a federal-level mandate when insurers were paying him to be for it, and is against it now that Obama is defending it.”). Gillespie also has stated his belief that there's no reason why "people shouldn’t be eligible for Medicaid or some form of government subsidies." Another important aspect of "Obamacare," in other words. The bottom line: if Gillespie runs against Mark Warner next year and tries to attack him on elements of "Obamacare," all Warner will have to do is point people to the videos, audios, and news articles in which Gillespie strongly supported "Obamacare"'s key elements. Should be entertaining, if nothing else! ;)

Jon Stewart: “Wouldn’t it free up businesses more if we decouple healthcare from business?”
Ed Gillespie: “Yeah. Absolutely. It would.” [audience laughter]
Stewart: “So you’re for single payer?”
Gillespie: “No. I’m for saying that the fact is healthcare as an employee benefit is an anachronistic system. It was devised to get around wage controls. It was implemented at a time when someone might go to work at General Motors and work there for 25 years. Now, people move...eight, nine jobs in the course of a career…”
Stewart: “So how can we do it?”
Gillespie: “Well, I think it should be based on the individual. You should be able to risk pool outside of your employer. One of the reasons that employers are so important…”
Stewart: “So, an exchange?”
Gillespie: “Yeah. I would make it a private sector exchange. You could have a state option, but there should be more freedom for people to choose.”

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Welcome to Blue Virginia!

The purpose of Blue Virginia is to cover Virginia politics from a progressive and Democratic perspective. This is a group blog, founded by me (Lowell Feld), but now including several other progressive writers. I can't speak for the other "front pagers," but I consider myself a progressive in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, JFK, RFK and actually a bunch of progressive Republicans (e.g., Jacob Javits, Lowell Weicker). As such, I believe in expanding opportunities to all, utilizing government as a tool to promote the general welfare and the common good, protecting the environment for ourselves and for future generations, and expanding the rights promised in our Constitution and Bill of Rights to all Americans.

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